Yes, that’s right. Shark Tank. It seems they were in Milwaukee recently scouting ideas for the show and our MagnTag boys impressed them enough to pique their interest, so they’re preparing to wow them again, and we’re pretty sure they’ll succeed!

MagneTag is a bit of a makerspace success story. Adam and Jason H. would agree that without Milwaukee Makerspace, it would not have come this far. Let’s all wish MagneTag luck as they wade into the shark-infested waters of potential investors!

As I am finalizing my MagneTag prototype for a small production run, I have been looking into efficient ways to cut fabric. Right now I trace by hand and and cut with scissors. I’m currently thinking I may want to make several hundred of these initial units.

With that in mind I am going to try die cutting my design with a shop press. Since I’m not exactly sure what my final product will look like aesthetically, I am reluctant to shell out a lot of money to have a die professionally fabricated. What’s the fun in that? I figured I would try my hand at a home brew hacked version.

I laser etched my design into two different substrates: wood and acrylic. Then a took an old rusty bandsaw blade and hammered it teeth down into the laser kerf. Then I took a Dremmel and ground a sharp edge into the steel.

An initial test on a manual hydraulic press gave mixed results. The wood is too soft to keep the blade from becoming embedded; the steel needs to pass all the way through the substrate. The acrylic seemed to work better, and surprisingly did not break when I tried to use it.

There is still lots of room for improvement, but I’m pretty happy with this first attempt.

On Friday April 20th, 2012, several members of the Milwaukee Makerspace participated in the Spring Gallery Night event hosted at BucketWorks and put on in collaboration with ArtWorks for Milwaukee. Several hundred people came through the space to check out works from both groups. ArtWorks also had a nice write-up of the night from their point of view. We love getting our crazy work out in front of people.

So, gentle Reader, I present to you an inventory of our Makers and Their Works:

Kevin Bastyr

The Mahoganator – A noise box encased in a lovely Mahogany shell.

The Cacophonator – A noise box encased in a lovely welded metal shell.